Fake NBA Trade of the Day 7/9/16: Vucevic to Boston

Every day, Pick and Popovich will post one fake trade and explain why it makes sense for every team involved to make it. There are no parameters beyond fitting within the salary cap. Sometimes the trades will involve stars, others role players. They are not grounded in actual rumors, they just make sense on paper.

Boston Celtics Receive:

Nikola Vucevic

Orlando Magic Receive:

Memphis’ 2019 1st Round Pick

Amir Johnson

Why Orlando would make this trade: Picks=valuable, Vucevic=gone.

Why Boston would make this trade: Vucevic can play center next to Al Horford or go to the bench at crunch time if the Celtics wanted to go small. In any case, Boston needs to win next year to attract another star free agent, and adding Vucevic helps them do that by giving them another scorer they can rely on off of their bench. His contract is eminently movable, so creating cap space next summer isn’t a problem.